


Territorial

by s_u_n_b_i_r_d



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Broken Families, Broken Friendship, Feels, Friendship, Gen, Other, dark and troubled past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22370563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_u_n_b_i_r_d/pseuds/s_u_n_b_i_r_d
Summary: You shouldn't go digging around in other people's pasts.You may not like what you find.----------------A one shot written for a friend over the holidays
Kudos: 6





	Territorial

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DragonofDarknessChaos](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=DragonofDarknessChaos).



_Territorial - To be defensive/protective of what you consider to be yours_

“What do you have there, boy?”

Jack jumped at the sound of Klofange’s voice barking in his ear. With a loud, shrill cry, he began to fumble with the small object in his hands before stuffing it in the pocket of his trench coat. “H-Hey there, Khloe!” he chuckled, sweating bullets as he whirled around and threw on an innocent face. “Back from your morning hunt already?!”

“Your village has nothing to offer but these grey, squawking vermin,” growled Klofange, holding up the three dead pigeons he had tied to his belt. “Pitiful creatures. I came home to take your mother up on her offer of ‘pancakes.’” As Jack turned green at the sight of the dead birds, the old warrior inspected his face carefully, dark eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What were you doing in my sleeping chambers?”

“Uh....” Jack glanced away, clutching the object tightly behind his back. “Nnnnnnothing?” 

Klofange glowered down at him with a flat, unimpressed face. “You’re lying, Jack.”

“No, I’m not!” Jack backed away and turned to leave, but he found himself bumping into something solid. As he looked up at Klofange in surprise, the old warrior grabbed his wrist and pulled him up, holding him effortlessly with one hand. “Did you take something of mine?”

“Put me down!”

“What’s that behind your back, boy?”

“Nothing, now let me go!”

“I’ve grown tired of your lies, Jack Spicer, now come clean and tell me what you stole!”

“Let go of me, you big lug!”

Flailing pathetically in the man’s grip, Jack kicked at Klofange’s face. When his boot smashed into the man’s jaw, the warrior cried out in pain and released the redhead, who crashed to the floor with a grunt.

And when he shifted his weight to the right, there was an audible CRACK, and his heart begin to sink as he realized what had just happened.

He was not alone - Klofange had heard it too, and while Jack scrambled back up to his feet and backed away from the large man, Klofange knelt down -

And froze at what he saw.

“...It was an accident.” Hair standing on end at the crestfallen expression on the man’s face, Jack began to babble aimlessly. “It was an accident, I swear, I never meant to, I-I didn’t mean to-“

“You broke it.”

Those words were said so softly, Jack almost couldn’t tell what they were. And that made the teenager even more afraid than he already was. He never knew Klofange could be so quiet. He didn’t seem like the type. “I - you made me drop it!” he snapped, trying to shift the blame off of himself. “If you hadn’t grabbed me like that, then maybe it’d still be in one p - !”

“You BROKE it,” choked Klofange, gently scooping the broken object up in his hands. 

With an expression of absolute heartbreak, he traced his fingers around the edges of the ruined carving. It was a small, crudely sculpted warrior, it’s bottom half sharpened to a point, with a sword in its hands, and its eyes closed in prayer. It was lumpy, and awkward, and so worn in some places that Jack almost couldn’t tell what it was. But Klofange looked down at it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

Slowly, the warrior rose to his feet, and as he began to walk towards Jack, the teenager began to go into panic mode. “Wait, wait, wait!” He held his hands up defensively as he backed away slowly. “I - you’re mad, okay, you’re mad! And I get the feeling that maybe I might have crossed a line, and you know, that’s on me, but listen, I can fix this! My parents are loaded, we can find another carving like that, don’t worry, I promise I’ll replace it -!”

“Replace it?”

Suddenly a large hand grabbed Jack by the neck and slammed him into the wall so hard, the teenager was left seeing spots. “You can’t replace this!” Klofange shouted angrily. “This was HERS! She carved it herself! Out of the antler from a beast that no longer walks the earth! She hunted it down with her own two hands! I was there! I saw her do it! I taught her how! What right do you have to lay a hand on my daughter’s necklace, boy?!” His hand squeezed tighter around Jack’s throat, and Jack could only claw at his throat and look at his reflection in the man’s furious eyes. “What right do you have to destroy the ONLY piece of her I had left?!”

Jack struggled to speak, but all that came out was a high, squeaking sound. That pitiful attempt at speech seemed to bring the man back to his senses. He loosened his grip, and Jack fell to the ground wheezing and rubbing his neck, gasping for breath. When he finally regained his senses, he looked up and saw that Klofange had his back turned to him.

“You...you never told me you had a daughter,” he croaked.

Klofange said nothing for the longest time, looking down at the broken carving in his hands for a long stretch of silence before he spoke. “Her name was Solveig. She was strong. Fast. Smart. Beautiful. Had she survived, she would have grown up to be the greatest chieftain our clan had ever seen.”

Jack’s stomach sank. “.....S-Survived?”

Klofange squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long, weary sigh before he turned to look over his shoulder. “That mermaid took more from me than you could ever hope to understand.”

Time seemed to stop as the two locked eyes with one another. But before either of them could speak, the door to the room burst open and Robojack came waltzing in with a plate piled high with pancakes. “Hey, hey, hey!” he said with a wink. “There’s my partner in crime! Morning, Roomie!” He nudged Klofange playfully. “Glad I caught you! Mrs Spicer wanted me to give you these and uh....”

Robojack trailed off as Klofange stalked past him. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“Hunting,” replied Klofange, refusing to spare him a glance as he tucked the carving into his furs.

“Uh, okay?” The android looked down the plate in his hands. “So, should I put these in the microwave until you get ba -?”

But Klofange ignored him as he slammed the door shut behind him, and like that, the conversation was over.

“Yeesh.” Robojack wrinkled his nose in disapproval. “What crawled up his ass?” He paused, then set the plate down on a nearby table and crossed his arms. “You know, why am I even surprised? He’s been in an iceberg for thousands of years, of COURSE he’d have a _frigid personality,_ right, Lamebrain?”

The android turned to Jack, his smile falling flat at the sight of Jack kneeling on the floor. “Uh, hello? Earth to Spicer? Is something wrong?”

Jack said nothing, but leapt up off the ground and pushed his way past the android. Robojack watched him bolt out of the room in confusion, and he jogged to the door and called out after him.

“Jack?!”


End file.
